Bi-Annual Blog

It's three days before Thanksgiving and I am in bed with strep throat.  This stuff is brutal.  Jeremy was sick all last week, but he tested negative for strep.  I however, am not so lucky.  It hit me like a freight train late yesterday afternoon, and I have been miserable.  Currently, thanks to medication, my fever has broke and I no longer have eight blankets on top of me.  Since we are supposed to leave for a Picker Family Reunion tomorrow after school, Jeremy has instructed me to stay away from the kids, in hopes my germs won't spread.  We'll see if we're that lucky.  I'm extremely bored, and although I've been reading some on and off today, I decided to get on my computer and my blog was staring me in the face.  I'll take a hint and update.

This girl is 7 going on 17.  She is enjoying second grade although the excitement of school has definitely worn off for her.  She is involved with Brownies, and just finished another soccer season coached by her dad.  She loves church, Justin Bieber, her brother and sister (most of the time), and reading.  She's still pretty quiet at school, but not nearly as shy as she used to be.  I spend the first Friday of the month at her school popping popcorn for all of the classes, and I often have kids ask me why she never talks when she's not supposed to.  My reply, "Well, I guess because she knows she's not supposed to!"  She's quite the rule follower.  She participates in Math Fact Scholars at school and is one test away from getting a silver medal for knowing her multiplication/division problems up to 12.

This little lady is 4.  She started preschool this year, and although we never thought she was as shy as Kennedy, she acts very much like Kennedy did in preschool.  She definitely talks to her teachers way more than Kennedy ever did, but I found out at Parent Teacher Conferences that she prefers to stand next to the teachers at recess and chat with them rather than play with other kids.  We are working on that.  Who knows what all they know about our family!  I think I'll prefer to remain ignorant though as to what kinds of things she is telling them!  Her current loves are Barbie Princess and the Popstar, Lalaloopsies, her brother and sister (again, most of the time) and playing Nick Jr. and PBS Kids games on my computer.  She loves to sing and dance, but not if she realizes people are watching her.  She loves to make people laugh, and is quite goofy.

And this big guy is a week and a half away from being 2.  He is fairly laid back, yet he manages to keep me on my toes.  He talks a ton, and in full sentences for the most part, much like Kennedy did when she was his age.  He loves Dora, Yo Gabba Gabba, the Cardinals, his big sisters, playing on our iphones (in which he can fully navigate his way around), playing with any type of ball, and all forms of transportation.  I'm so excited to give him a real basketball hoop (Little Tikes) for his birthday, so he can stop "playing basketball" by shooting a ball into the bottom of one of our bar stools.  Jeremy's parents are also giving him a t-ball set, which will be fantastic, as he currently uses a spatula as a bat to hit balls around our house.  We recently changed his room into a big boy room, and he now sleeps in Jeremy's old bed from when he was a kid.  It's decorated in all things Cardinals/sports.  He loves it and has done great!  He's even started using the potty on occasion.  I'm not really pushing that though, as we are traveling for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I feel like diapers may be an easier route for our trips. We'll see though.  He's also our first child that actually likes soda, which has thrown us for a loop.  Our girls despise it, so we've never had to deal with whether or not they can have it.  Ian, however, has soda radar.  He can hear a can pop open across the room, and he'll immediately bring his cute little self to whomever is drinking it, and say "Soda please?"  Hard to resist.

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, a Merry Christmas, a happy Valentine's Day, and a great Easter, because lets be realistic, it's unlikely I'll update again before then.

Easter 2012

We had a great Easter weekend! My mom and Dave came down for the weekend, which ended up being a HUGE help. We had a very large Easter Egg Hunt at church yesterday (over 600 people attended!) that Jeremy was partially in charge of, and I don't think the kids and I would've had a very fun time without the help from them! Ian loved finding eggs, as did Kennedy. As for Ansley, she acted like she was pretty unsure of what she was supposed to do, but finally got the hang of it. Kennedy even scored a golden coin, earning her a new Barbie doll! What fun!

We had a wonderful church service today, where again, my mom and Dave were a huge help with the kids! Afterwards, we had a yummy soup/salad lunch at Olive Garden and then came home and played outside the rest of the day. Well, actually Jeremy and the kids played outside while I cleaned up the house. We're ready to start another week with clean clothes, a clean house, and our bellies full of candy!

I'm looking forward to next weekend! My birthday present this year was a trip to Kansas City this coming weekend with both of my sisters and a few friends to a Beth Moore Conference. We are staying in a hotel, going to Beth Moore, shopping, and hanging out! I can't wait! Jeremy will have the kids all to himself this weekend--which the girls are super excited about! I'm halfway surprised he hasn't called in his mom to come help. :)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! Only 6 weeks of school left, and between now and then we have a trip to Atlanta planned, and Jeremy and I have a trip (without kids!) to Aspen in May! Before we know it, summer will be here!

Little Man, Big Talker

Ian had his 15 month appointment today and his stats are as follows:

Weight: 24 lbs. 5.2 oz (50th%)
Height: 33 inches (90-97th%)
Head: 20.75 inches (>97th%)

The doctor asked how many words Ian said. I didn't have a number off the top of my head, but my response was "a lot." The doctor said "Like 6 words?", and I replied, "No, definitely more than 6." So he said "Maybe 10 words?", and again, my response was "Definitely more than 10." So the doctor said "More than 20, do you think?", and I said "Yes, probably more than 20." Honestly, though, I've never counted. So tonight at dinner we made a list of all of Ian's words. Here they are in no particular order:
book, ball, baby, baba (bottle), wa-wa (water), Momma, Daddy, Ansley and Kennedy (or something similar to their names), Lace (for Lacee, our friend living with us right now), hi, hello, bye-bye, Bible, up, down, nose, eyes, mouth, belly, butterfly (kind of), dog, kitty, Dora, Boots, Swiper, "Oh man!" (thanks to Swiper the Fox), Elmo, Spongebob, bus, schoolbus, tow truck, big rig, doctor, juice, turtle, God, bath, diaper, shoe, Blues Clues, jinx, puffs, apple, cracker, grapes, pancake, thank you, please, yes, Nana, Papa, Betsy, Grandma/pa, Stacy, Ty-ty (Tyler), Josh...
and I'm sure there's more, but that's what we came up with! Looks like over 50 to me! Of course, he's always so quiet around other people until he warms up, but I'm thinking he's going to be a lot like his daddy...a big talker! :)

Tired

Ansley doesn't usually nap anymore. However, if we have anywhere to go in the evenings, she tends to fall asleep--especially on the drive to Wednesday night church. I think this night she was exceptionally tired!

Pink Boots

This little boy loves his big sisters so much. So much, in fact, that he wants to do pretty much everything they do...including wearing their pink boots!

Smart Cookie

This little girl just got her bronze medal in Math Fact Scholars, meaning she passed all the addition/subtraction timed tests. She is so excited and very proud of herself (those were her exact words:). She now moves onto multiplication, which I'm a little nervous about trying to teach her, being that she's only in first grade, but she has an awesome memory, so it may be no problem for her at all. We'll see!

My Poor, Neglected Blog

So my last post was in November. Yeah, sorry about that. I think I give excuses every time, but I've just been plain neglectful of this blog. I guess I figure anyone that reads it (the one or two of you out there) probably is on Facebook and keeps up with our life there. Maybe I'm wrong though.

So Christmas came and went, followed shortly thereafter by our 11-year anniversary and my 30-something birthday. Ansley's birthday was February 3, and she had her first "friends" birthday party. She wanted a "Dorothy" (aka Wizard of Oz) party, so being the awesome mom I am, I complied. I had to get pretty creative though, as Wizard of Oz stuff is not sold at the party stores! She had a great time though and loved having all of the attention on her.

In mid-February, Mr. Ian got tubes put in his ears, which we are hoping takes care of his pretty much constant ear infections that he had from October-February. Poor little guy has been pitiful--but only at night. During the day, he was as happy as could be, but at night when we tried to put him in his crib, he would scream in pain. Because of that, we spent many (okay maybe two months worth) nights on the couch with him. Thanks to that spoiling, this week we are having crib-bootcamp and forcing him to get used to sleeping in his crib again. So. Much. Fun. Let me tell ya! He is talking our ears off though, and pretty much repeats anything we say. For some unknown reason, I taught the girls the "jinx" game, where if you say something at the same time with another person you can "jinx" them, which makes them unable to speak until someone says their name. Note to self--don't ever teach your kids this game--so annoying! Well anyways, the other day in the car that happened, and one of the girls shouted "jinx!" About 2 seconds later, Ian repeated "Jinx!" We all died laughing. He is a little comedian who loves to sing (especially Justin Bieber songs) and dance. Don't worry, like any good parents we've gotten it on tape many times for future blackmail.

Kennedy's still loving first grade. She loves math and reading. I love that she can read to herself now! I could only handle so much Magic Tree House and Junie B. Jones. I especially love watching her read to Ian and Ansley! Melts my heart! I still can't believe that I have an almost 7 year old. And second grade next year? Crazy! One of her highlights after Christmas was getting 3 fish. Of course 2 of them died within a week, but Claire the fish is still going strong!

Since a blog post would not be complete without cute pictures, here are a few to help catch you up since November (in no particular order).

Kennedy at her First Grade Musical (The Share Bears) with her favorite music teacher.

Kennedy made Jeremy and I breakfast for our anniversary :)

Ian before his surgery

Ansley's birthday party

Ian's favorite seat

Ian often has trouble staying awake at lunch.

Excited!

The girls at gymnastics

Cute matching shirts/headbands/bracelets made by Aunt Kendal

Christmas